Nectar Farms chief executive Stephen Sasse said the vacant site off Leviathan Road would be turned into a construction site within weeks.

“We will begin moving earth in late January and early February to get the approved site flat,” he said.

“There are quite a lot of complicated irrigation, drainage and electrical requirements that need to be put in place also and then in June or July 160 containers will turn up from Holland and they will be turned into the greenhouse.”

Mr Sasse said water would not be an issue and was happy with their water allocation.

“We will be taking some water from Stawell’s local water utility and the rest we will be collecting ourselves off the roof,” he said.

Mr Sasse said Stawell had a perfect climate for the crop which Nectar Farms expected to begin planting next year in March.

Agricultural and regional development minister Jaala Pulford was excited by the project.

“Northern Grampians Shire Council have concluded all of the planning arrangements that were necessary and importantly the transfer of land occurred between Stawell Gold Mines to Nectar Farms last week,” she said.

“The community has worked hard to achieve this investment over many months now.” 

Ms Pulford said Stawell’s response to the 150 redundancies at Stawell Gold Mines in December was like no other.

“I have seen no one with their head in their hands, there has been a real sense of the need to get on with things,” she said.

“Work done a year ago about what Stawell’s future would look like without gold mining has been an important foundation.”

Northern Grampians Shire Council mayor Tony Driscoll said the Nectar Farms project made great progress. “This was a project where there was a sense of expectation, is it going to happen or not, but it has happened,” he said.